LibriVox recording of Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis. Read by Mike Vendetti.

(Summary by Mike Vendetti) Sinclair Lewis’ George F. Babbitt is a complicated and conflicted character. When you think you have his next move figured out he surprises you. As you begin to like him, he does something to evoke the “what a rat” response.

Male menopause wasn’t a pre Great Depression term, but I would say George has all the symptoms. At a pudgy balding forty six he looks at his life, wife, family and business. He sees himself as a pretty successful business man, but when Tanis, the lonely widow has a leaky roof, he sees an opportunity for perhaps a more fulfilling relationship then he has at home. Add to Tanis a foray into radical politics, and we are about to witness an emotional and financial train wreck with Babbitt at the throttle.

This is a long story, but well worth listening to. Human nature hasn’t changed much in the last ninety years.

Enjoy the novel,
Mike Vendetti

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M4B audiobook of Complete Book


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Sinclair Lewis
Date: 2009-03-10
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; fiction; satire; middle-class America

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: lanternland - - May 4, 2012
Subject: Babbitt
Mike Vendetti is a great reader, extremely professional...and he sure did a lot of reading here. The book is interminable.

Reviewer: jtodd1973 - - January 29, 2011
Subject: A good reading of a good book
My only complaint is that there are a lot of pauses before difficult to pronounce words or names, which made the narrative a bit stilted. There were also some stumbled over pronunciations.

Reviewer: lorca's_ghost - - October 22, 2010
Subject: love it.
Mr Vendetti, it is simply a pleasure to listen to you. Especially the ironic bits are voiced wonderfully.